Upi is a municipality in the province of Maguindanao. Upi Community eCenter was the first eLGU CeC to be established. Since the CeC’s birth in 2004, the Municipality of Upi became globally competitive in terms of technology. It was months after Upi CeC started operating that Smart Telecommunications saw the need to extend their SmartBro services to Upi to cater to the rising demand for ICT-based services. Now they are serving five Internet cafes, 200 private residences, and several private and public schools in the locality.

Upi CeC offers services pretty much similar to those at the Internet cafes. But, on top of those, it also offers office automation tutorials, PC repair and maintenance, video and photo editing, and IT consultancy.

Now Upi CeC is about to spread its reach even farther as it establishes a partnership with Datu Paglas Municipality, Sultan Kudarat on its computerization efforts in collaboration with the Local Government Support Program (LGSP). The latter is headed by Project Officer Edgar Catalan.

The partnership between Upi CeC and Datu Paglas Municipality came into fruition when the latter learned that Upi CeC is offering IT consultancy services.

“It is a good opportunity to establish a good relationship with neighboring municipalities by helping them in their computerization program,” said Mayor Ramon Piang of the Local Government of Upi.

The signing of the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) between Upi and Datu Paglas will take place in April 2009. The MOA will cover, among others, onsite skills training (Basic Computer Operation, MS Office, Local Area Networking, and PC Troubleshooting) and onsite support in the installation of the electronic National Government Accounting System (eNGAS) of the Commission on Audit (COA), the electronic Business Permits and Licensing System (eBPLS) of the National Computer Center, as well as other applications.